Has reading has taken a back seat to everything else in your life, lately? It might be time to set some reading goals for yourself.
I noticed when I got out of school, I felt guilty about making time to read. There were chores to be done and people to connect with. Reading for "fun" felt like a non-priority. But being a reader is a quatlity I value in myself, so I had to change my thinking and find a solution to allow some guilt-free reading time.
I contacted some friends and we started a monthly book club. At least I would be reading a book every month. Having the deadline added a sense of urgency to my reading time. Over time, for whatever reason, our book club fizzled out, so I had to come up with another plan.
I decided to assign myself a yearly reading list. I planned to read 3 non-fiction, 3 contemporary fiction, 3 classics, 1 biography, 1 Shakespeare and 1 "reader's choice" over the course of the year. I enjoyed the mix of structure and flexibility of this list and followed it for about 5 years.
The cool thing about reading goals is that there are so many options to choose what to track. Would you like to read for 40 minutes per day, 30 pages per day, or 20 books per year? The options for tracking your reading are numerous as well.
Goodreads is a good option for keeping track of which books you have read. You can add reading dates, ratings and reviews for each book you read. They also have a yearly reading challenge, where you set a goal for the number of books you want to read for the year.
Spreadsheets can also be a good option for tracking your reading. Multiple sheets in a workbook allow you to track different aspects of your reading too: titles, genres, book counts, minutes, etc. You can create your own, but there are a lot of free trackers available online too.
If you need inspiration about what to read, there are a lot of reading challenges out there. Some of my favorites include the The Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge and 100 greatest books lists, though sometimes those lists can lack diversity. It can also be fun to check with your local public library to see what kind of reading challenges they have for the year. Public libraries also tend to include prizes in their challenges to encourage participation.
What do you do to keep yourself from falling off the reading wagon? Do you use any kind of tracking system? I would love to hear from you!
Have a happy and well-read week!